Bachendri Pal, an Indian mountaineer, was born on May 24, 1954. She was born in the Bhotiya family in Nakuri village of the Uttarkashi district in the state of Uttarakhand. She was one of five children to Hansa Devi and Kishan Singh Pal – a border tradesman who supplied groceries from India to Tibet. In 1984 she became the first Indian woman to climb the summit of Mount Everest. She successfully led an "Indo-Nepalese Women's Mount Everest Expedition", an all-women team of rafters in "The Great Indian Women's Rafting Voyage" and the "First Indian Women Trans-Himalayan Expedition."

Some interesting facts:

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Bachendri Pal was born only five days prior to the first anniversary of the original ascension of Mount Everest by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary.

Pal completed her M.A. and B.Ed from D.A.V. Post Graduate College, Dehradun.

She started mountaineering at the age of 12 when she, along with her friends, scaled a 13,123 ft high peak during a school picnic.

Bachendri Pal's family and relatives were against the idea of her becoming a professional mountaineer and wanted her to become a teacher instead.

On the fourth expedition to Mount Everest, her team almost met disaster when an avalanche buried their camp. More than half the group called it quits because of fatigue and injury.

She achieved the feat of climbing Everest a day before her 30 birthday.

Bachendri Pal continued to be active after ascending to the highest peak in the world.

Bachendri Pal along with Premlata Agarwal and a group of ace climbers including Mt. Everest summiteers arrived in Uttarkashi and carried out relief and rescue operations in the remotest high-altitude villages of the Himalayas that had been ravaged in the 2013 North India Floods.

 
Bachendri Pal: Awards

Gold Medal for Excellence in Mountaineering by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (1984)

Padma Shri – the fourth highest civilian award of the Republic of India (1984)

Gold Medal by the Department of Education, Government of Uttar Pradesh, India (1985)

Arjuna Award by the Government of India (1986)

Calcutta Ladies Study Group Award (1986)

Listed in the Guinness Book of World Records (1990)

National Adventure Award by the Government of India (1994)

Yash Bharti Award by the Government of Uttar Pradesh, India (1995)

Honorary Doctorate from the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University (formerly known as Garhwal University) (1997)

Padma Bhushan – the third-highest civilian award of the Republic of India (2019)

Bharat Gaurav Award by East Bengal Club: 2014